Setting the Tone for the First Lesson of the Year

There are few lessons as special as the first lesson of a new academic year. While success in teaching happens in the aggregate—and is rarely derailed by any single lesson, even those we feel could have gone better—the very first lesson feels a little different. This is because it is different. 

The first lesson is an opportunity to welcome our students to our classrooms and to share with them the excitement (and trepidation) of a new academic year. It’s an opportunity to get to know our students and for them to get to know us. We set the tone for the year by beginning to build the routines and habits that shape our classrooms. What we do in this first lesson reverberates in all of those that follow. 

In this article, I’ll outline four of my best strategies for getting the most out of your first lesson. Whether you’re teaching an entirely new class for the first time or rejoining a class that you taught last year, these strategies are sure to set you and your students up for success. 

1. Meet Them at the Door

Make sure that you’re waiting at the door of the classroom to greet your new students. As they arrive, say hello to each student personally, asking for their name if you haven’t taught the class before. Direct them to head into the classroom and to find their desk, which you should label beforehand.  

There are a few reasons for doing this: 

• Most obviously and fundamentally, it gives you the opportunity to acknowledge each student personally. It tells them that they matter to you and creates, from the first second, an inclusive and welcoming space. They are seen and they matter. 
• If you’re asking for their name, it gives students the chance to tell you how they prefer to be known. Often, a name as it appears on a register is not the student’s preference. Jot down what they say on the class roster (which I have with me on a clipboard) so that you can begin to address them in the manner they prefer as soon as the lesson begins. 
• A more practical reason for meeting students at the door is to control the flow of entry into the classroom. It means the door doesn’t become a bottleneck and students will enter, one by one, in a calm and orderly fashion. 

2. Give Students Something to Think About 

If you’re waiting at the door for students to enter, this means you’re not in the classroom teaching. Make sure that there is something on the desk for students to complete. It should be self-explanatory and self-contained so students don’t feel the need to get back up and ask you a question. While they’re working on this, you can continue to greet students as they arrive. 

My preference for this first task is either a retrieval activity from the last academic year (so long as I am confident that they will know it) or a list of some books I read over summer, with space for students to write down what they read and/or what they most enjoyed about your subject in the previous year. 

3. Make Names a Priority 

Aiming to learn the names of your students as quickly as possible is always one of my top priorities. It helps to build a strong relationship with the class, but also, just as important, it enables a whole host of routines I rely on in my teaching. It is hard to cold call if you don’t know the name of the person you wish to ask. 

The important work of learning names begins in the first lesson. Keep your clipboard with you during the lesson (with their preferred names now added), and make a conscious effort to refer to it during questioning. Let students know this is what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Invite them to correct you anytime you get a name wrong. At the end of the first lesson, I always make a big deal of moving around the room and trying to name every student correctly. I don’t always get this right, but it’s surprising to find how quickly you can do it. 

4. Make the Subject Matter 

As well as sending a signal that each student matters as an individual, you also want them to understand that your subject matters. It’s why you’re all gathered together, after all. Therefore, make sure that you always begin with something that’s academically substantive. 

In my own subject of English, I always begin by teaching a poem. It is discrete and exemplifies many of the skills that characterize the overall discipline; I’m able to build a quick snapshot of the class’s current ability in order to inform future planning; and it allows plenty of scope for rich and interesting discussion.  

During the discussion, continue to systematically use and rehearse student names, but also begin to introduce students to high-leverage routines you know you’re likely to use a lot: turn and talk, cold call, mini-whiteboards. As you do it for the first time, narrate what you’re doing and how you’d like the routine to work in all future lessons. 

The first lesson matters, and you can ensure that it does in all the right ways. Set the tone you want to permeate all the lessons that will follow it: inclusive and purposeful, welcoming and rigorous.